About Impact Parent Education

What we do

Our organization has worked with families for over 25 years through mediation, legal assistance, and parent education services. Currently, our focus is parent education, because we know that it empowers parents to find peaceful solutions with less court involvement. Parents can learn how to resolve conflicts and build a more peaceful and effective co-parenting relationship.

Our mission

Our mission is to bring peace to families. We do this through the Impact Parent Education Course.

A Letter from the Facilitator

Over a 30 year time period, I worked in the courts as a court reporter and as a mediator and co-parent educator. One cannot work in this profession without developing compassion for families in conflict over divorce, custody or parenting time.

I respect the legal system. Attorneys and judges are dedicated to their work. However, because of my work as a mediator, I believe that peace between parents is more long-lasting when resolutions are reached through mediation outside of a court setting rather than through litigation.

That said, I also know that mediation is not enough either. I believe that the combination of divorce co-parenting education and mediation is crucial, because this education provides the backbone of mediated agreements. Mediation cannot do its job without the court system either, because courts are needed to bring legal closure to mediated agreements. So, they all three must work together.

When I authored the Impact Parent Education Program, I drew upon the expertise and the compassion my work experience instilled in me to help families find peace for the sake of children. I have seen so many courageous parents reach agreements for the sake of their children. I respect these parents tremendously, for they made sacrifices in reaching peaceful agreements. All my training and education cannot match what I’ve learned from these parents, because they lived it and they overcame it.

Sincerely, Lois Warner

Mediator, Co-Parent Educator, ENE and Legal Assistant

Lois Warner’s Professional Background

Lois Warner is the author and facilitator of this course. She worked as an official court reporter in the St. Louis, Minnesota courts for 10 years. She is a legal assistant and divorce mediator with education in family dynamics and crisis management through Bemidji State University. She was trained in divorce mediation and domestic violence with the Erickson Mediation Training Institute in 1996, and received additional training in advanced mediation techniques, parenting coordination, and family group conferencing in 1998. She is also trained in workplace mediation and restorative justice. She is also trained as an Early Neutral Evaluator in St. Louis County, Minnesota. She has been a parent educator since 2001.